Robot wardens are about to join the ranks of South Korea's prison service.A jail in the eastern city of Pohang plans to run a month-long trial with three of the automatons in March.

The machines will monitor inmates for abnormal behaviour. Researchers say they will help reduce the workload for other guards.

South Korea aims to be a world leaders in robotics. Business leaders believe the field has the potential to become a major export industry.

The three 5ft-high (1.5m) robots involved in the prison trial have been developed by the Asian Forum for Corrections, a South Korean group of researchers who specialise in criminality and prison policies.

It said the robots move on four wheels and are equipped with cameras and other sensors that allow them to detect risky behaviour such as violence and suicide.

Prof Lee Baik-Chu, of Kyonggi University, who led the design process, said the robots would alert human guards if they discovered a problem.

"As we're almost done with creating its key operating system, we are now working on refining its details to make it look more friendly to inmates," the professor told the Yonhap news agency.

The one-month trial will cost 1bn won (£554,000) and is being sponsored by the South Korean government.

It is the latest in a series of investments made by the state to develop its robotics industry.

The country's Ministry of Knowledge Economy said in January that it had spent the equivalent of £415m on research in the sector between 2002 and 2010.

It said the aim was to compete with other countries, such as Japan, which are also exploring the industry's potential.

In October the ministry said the Korean robot market had recorded 75% growth over the past two years and was now worth about £1bn.Robots everywhere

Success stories reported by the Korean media include Samsung Techwin's sale of a robotic surveillance system to Algeria and shipments of the humanoid Hubo robot to six universities in the US.

The South Korean defence company DoDAAM is also developing robotic gun turrets for export which can be programmed to open fire automatically.

Within the country English-speaking robotic teaching assistants are already being deployed in some schools to help children to practise their pronunciation.

The Joongang Daily newspaper reported in August that a company called Showbo had begun mass producing a robot that bowed to shop customers and told them about promotions on offer.

Other firms say they hope to start selling robots to help care for the elderly before the end of the decade, and personal assistant robots further down the line.

The government is also building a Robot Land theme park in the north-west city of Incheon to help highlight the country's success. Planners say they hope 2.8 million people will visit each year.

................ I exist only to amuse myself ................

I personally feel that this message board, Jacurutu, is full of hateful folks who don't know how to fully interact with people. ~ "Spice Grandson" (Bryon Merrit) 08 June 2008

Freakzilla wrote:But seriously SR, I know you don't think this is what FH meant. It's more of a KJA interpretation, no?

It sort of fits either interpretation actually, the difference is just whether we're talking about the segment of society with machines working for them, or human brains in jars working for the evil cartoon machines!

FH's Jihad was against robots as well remember, it was just mainly against the humans with the robots and the mentality of it.

Freakzilla wrote:But seriously SR, I know you don't think this is what FH meant. It's more of a KJA interpretation, no?

It sort of fits either interpretation actually, the difference is just whether we're talking about the segment of society with machines working for them, or human brains in jars working for the evil cartoon machines!

FH's Jihad was against robots as well remember, it was just mainly against the humans with the robots and the mentality of it.

I think it was more subtle than that. I do not believe people were enslaved by robots. I can see lost of machines around me that I am a slave to now.

Paul of Dune was so bad it gave me a seizure that dislocated both of my shoulders and prolapsed my anus.~Pink Snowman

Im not sure what the prisons in South Korea are like, but do you really think these things would last 30 seconds in a US prison? they would tear it apart and turn it into some new love toy, or beat it into scrap and use it in the yard for some kind of sport.

I think you would have to go robocop-like for the US. Missile launchers, 50 cal Machine guns, Electric Shock weapons, and heavy armor.

Machines made the lives of people easier, and became so ingrained that people stop doing and forgot and then other men took those machines and enslaved the people who used them.

We could be headed that way in a slightly different manor. The use of devices and machines is eroding privacy, which means you are known were you go, who you talk to, what you do with, who you do it with,etc. Men behind the machines are using them to target us with the data they compile from the use of those machines. It can be overwhelming if you really dive down into it. The information can be used for good or ill, depending on who has it.

keep a good ten pound sledge, some pencils and paper, matches (lighter), duct tape, a good knife, as a starter kit for when things go automated?

Freakzilla wrote:But seriously SR, I know you don't think this is what FH meant. It's more of a KJA interpretation, no?

It sort of fits either interpretation actually, the difference is just whether we're talking about the segment of society with machines working for them, or human brains in jars working for the evil cartoon machines!

FH's Jihad was against robots as well remember, it was just mainly against the humans with the robots and the mentality of it.

I think it was more subtle than that. I do not believe people were enslaved by robots. I can see lost of machines around me that I am a slave to now.

Of course it was more subtle than that, I'm just saying FH himself mentions robots - so saying that a robot is more inline with KJA's version doesn't make any sense to me, because FH says there were robots on the other side.

It was definitely not machines enslaving humanity (other than as you mention), but that's not really much to do with this particular discussion - I'm just saying a robot working for humans doesn't in any way contradict FH.

Once you get over the problem of employment and general welfare, how attractive is the idea of mankind being able to focus only on self improvement?We are an automated society, very few of us could last a year in the wild.

I fully believe robotic prison guards are another step toward a dystopia like Huxley and Herbert wrote about.

Leto II is gone for good, except for OM. The "pearl" was just that; a miniscule portion of what Leto was, and not a compressed version of the whole. The pearl that the worms have do not make them Leto, or in any way similar to him.-Omphalos

trang wrote:Machines made the lives of people easier, and became so ingrained that people stop doing and forgot and then other men took those machines and enslaved the people who used them.

We could be headed that way in a slightly different manor. The use of devices and machines is eroding privacy, which means you are known were you go, who you talk to, what you do with, who you do it with,etc. Men behind the machines are using them to target us with the data they compile from the use of those machines. It can be overwhelming if you really dive down into it. The information can be used for good or ill, depending on who has it.

keep a good ten pound sledge, some pencils and paper, matches (lighter), duct tape, a good knife, as a starter kit for when things go automated?

Privacy and information were a key element in the reasons for the B Jihad according to Orielly.

Freakzilla wrote:But seriously SR, I know you don't think this is what FH meant. It's more of a KJA interpretation, no?

It sort of fits either interpretation actually, the difference is just whether we're talking about the segment of society with machines working for them, or human brains in jars working for the evil cartoon machines!

FH's Jihad was against robots as well remember, it was just mainly against the humans with the robots and the mentality of it.

I think it was more subtle than that. I do not believe people were enslaved by robots. I can see lost of machines around me that I am a slave to now.

Of course it was more subtle than that, I'm just saying FH himself mentions robots - so saying that a robot is more inline with KJA's version doesn't make any sense to me, because FH says there were robots on the other side.

It was definitely not machines enslaving humanity (other than as you mention), but that's not really much to do with this particular discussion - I'm just saying a robot working for humans doesn't in any way contradict FH.

Did FH say robots were on the 'other' side or just that they were destroyed?

Paul of Dune was so bad it gave me a seizure that dislocated both of my shoulders and prolapsed my anus.~Pink Snowman

Did FH say robots were on the 'other' side or just that they were destroyed?

I lean FAR away from a terminator style war as well, but it's not much of a jump to think that the men with machines would have used some robots in the fighting. We use robots in war right now and it's nothing like a terminator war.

No FH definitely never stated that, it just seems logical. I agree though, KJA has tainted the whole bloody thing nearly beyond repair. An OH reimaging of the Jihad would make for a pretty killer book though.

My point basically is that I think the default belief (for me) is that some robots and conscious machines were probably involved in the fighting, simply because I cannot come up with any logical reason that they wouldn't have been.

But it was still a war between those who wanted to keep machines and those who didn't, not between the machines themselves and humanity.